


The Quantum Entanglement of Straws and Ice

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Quantum Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 10:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1937619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei contemplates quantum entanglement. Nagisa attempts to drink with a straw. Rei/Nagisa of the fluffiest kind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Quantum Entanglement of Straws and Ice

Summary: Rei considers quantum entanglement. Nagisa attempts to drink from a straw.

There was not much to be done that summer's evening. The sticky summer heat had toned down from that afternoon, the gold-orange sunshine causing the shadows in the near empty station to lengthen and elongate into grotesque forgeries of their solid counterparts. Only Nagisa and Rei were there, hands entangled as they waited for the train back home. The summer sunshine glittered on the pages of the science journal Rei was reading as he flicked through it one handedly. The quiet summer air was perforated with the sounds of pages turning and the clinking of ice as Nagisa tried to grasp the straw in his iced juice with his teeth.

"Whatcha reading, Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked. giving up his quest for the straw in favour of his boyfriend's attention.

"An article on quantum entanglement." Rei replied, idly turning the page.

"Oh." Nagisa was quiet for a moment. "Wasn't that what Tanaka-sensei was talking about during class today? Like how quantum things spin around at the same time?"

"Yes, that's right." Rei looked up from his magazine with a pleased smile. "You were listening in class today?"

Nagisa puffed up angrily. "I do listen sometimes! Tanaka-sensei was talking about space when he mentioned it, and I like space, so…" Nagisa went back to watching the straw in his drink spin around lazily. "Do you think my ice and straw might be quantum tangled?"

"Entangled, Nagisa-kun."

"Yeah, that. They could be, I mean look! I think they're conspiring so I can't drink."

"It's a bit more complicated than that, Nagisa-kun." Before he could go into an explanation, Nagisa's attention was back on his spinning straw. Rei sighed quietly, and went back to his magazine.

Despite being together for nearly three months, Nagisa had not assimilated Rei's love of physics and maths. His head was perpetually up in space, and he held no interest in any science that was closer to Earth than Mars. Rei knew Nagisa did great on any test about space, and sorely hoped he could put that kind of motivation towards other parts of the scientific spectrum, but he had had no luck. Nagisa just could not see the beauty of the science here at his fingertips.

Take quantum entanglement, for example. What was not to like about quantum entanglement? It was _beautiful._ The synchronization of two pieces of matter, to share photons and spin and polarization, to react when one matter piece was adjusted to balance the quantum state… It was articles like this that made Rei's mind run riot with possibilities. Was quantum entanglement solely limited to micro particles? Scientists were well on the way to proving this true or false, with their most recent experiments with quantum entangled diamonds. If this proved true, could it affect complex organisms, like humans? Could the red string of fate, tying soulmates together by their little fingers, just be quantum entanglement on an epic scale? Rei was not one to build bricks without mortar, not one to believe in hypothesis without facts, but still he couldn't help trusting in it. The way Nagisa and he fit and flowed together… he _wanted_ it to be true.

Quantum entanglement was not flashy - it did not demand a parade of chemical reactions in order to work. And in a way, that was how their relationship had panned out. There was no explosion when Nagisa and Rei came together, no blistering realisation or awkward stepping around each other. There was no need of big confessions and showers of rose petals, or nerves and knocking knees as one stutteringly speaks of love and devotion. That was not beauty, neither in the ordered or the chaotic kind.

Nagisa just _knew._

There is a theory in quantum entanglement that one particle innately knows what is inflicted on the others, and reacts accordingly. This was certainly true with Nagisa - Rei had no sooner thought the words "I may be falling for Nagisa." when the boy began to be more overt and affectionate. He had barely finished imagining kissing the young boy when he found himself at the back of the locker room with his lap full of blonde sunshine and his lips pressed warmly against the slightly chapped ones that belonged to the sprite that was Nagisa.

Nagisa _knew_ and _reacted_. They balanced their quantum state. Rei, the studious bookworm, who had periods of outspoken emotion, and Nagisa the empathetic extrovert, who had periods of withdrawn quiet. Two diamonds spinning at the same frequency, around and around and around, tangled together with looks and touches and laughter and smiles, until it becomes surprising that they were ever apart.

Of course, quantum entanglement only lasted for so long. Seven picoseconds was the longest any scientist had kept two atoms in quantum entanglement. Although the tidy, organized, bleached white cleanliness of the lab was a poor reconstruction of chaotic nature, Rei was no fool - he was far too practical a man to speak in terms of forever. One day this would come to an end - maybe they would drift apart when they left high school, or things wouldn't work out, or one of them would die first when they were old and grey. But that wouldn't stop him appreciating the science of here and now, the beauty of their entanglement.

A noise brought Rei out of his thoughts. Nagisa's straw had once again circled the glass and missed Nagisa's mouth again. Chuckling slightly, Rei put his magazine aside, reached out and carefully pinned the straw between his thumb and forefinger.

"Here." he murmured quietly, holding it still so that Nagisu could catch it with his lips. Nagisu grinned widely at him as he cried out his thanks, and Rei could not help but sigh good naturedly as the boy proceeded to devour the iced treat in front of him with the grace and charm of a hippopotamus.

There was nothing more beautiful than _their_ quantum entanglement.


End file.
